1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electrode device for cardiological or neurological electrodiagnosis and/or electrotherapy.
2. Description of the Related Art
Such electrode devices are disclosed, for example, in WO 2005/053555 A1. They are used in the field of electrophysiology, particularly for the detection and treatment of conduction disturbances in the heart and nervous system, and they are also known as stimulation, pacemaker or ICD electrodes or as EP catheters (electrophysiology catheters). They have an elongated electrode body which is provided on or in front of its distal end with at least one electrode. The later may, for example, be a sensing electrode for sensing cardiological or neuronal signals, an ablation electrode for the local sclerosis of cardiac tissues, or a therapy electrode for the emission of electrical stimulation signals, for example signals from a neurostimulator, heart pacemaker or defibrillator. The electrode(s) are each provided with an electrode conductor for its (their) electrical connection to a corresponding basic unit, such as an electrical generator, an electrotherapy unit or an implant such as a neurostimulator, a heart pacemaker or defibrillator.
Conventional electrode devices, such as those known from the state of the art in many different embodiments, use solid, metal feed lines or cords as electrode conductors, where the individual conductors are not insulated from each other. A patient who has implanted such an electrode device is excluded from gentle magnetic resonance diagnosis using core spintomographs since such metal electrode conductors may overheat in extremely strong electromagnetic fields such as those generated in magnetic resonance tomographs (MRT's) due to the flowing induction currents or the surrounding layers of tissue due to induction currents escaping at the ends of the conductors.
A method is also disclosed in the above-mentioned WO 2005/053 555 A1 for forming the electrode conductors from carbon fibers comprising a multiplicity of filaments. Although this provides a certain improvement relative to solid metal supply lines or cords, the conducting characteristics of such electrode conductors, in terms of their applicability in strong magnetic fields, requires further improvement.